Our products

Hoodia Extract Dietary weight management

The Company's weight management functional food product is based on a highly concentrated extract of the succulent plant Hoodia gordonii, which contains novel satiety stimulators that reduces calorie intake in overweight subjects, as demonstrated in the Company's double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study.. 

Progress to date

Earlier clinical studies funded by Pfizer Inc. using a solid product formulation had been encouraging in demonstrating a statistically significant reduction in the average daily calorific intake in the Hoodia extract group. The kinetic data confirms that the systematic exposure to biologically active constituents of Hoodia was consistent with the observed clinical effects.

The Company conducted clinical studies under the joint development agreement with Unilever; these were undertaken using different extracts and formulations from those previously studied. Under the terms of the Mutual Termination Agreement, Phytopharm and Unilever are currently evaluating the data arising from one of these studies and the final report is expected to be available from the clinical research organisation in Q3 2010. The Company intends to publish a number of scientific articles on the Hoodia programme in 2010.

Phytopharm currently maintains a very limited Hoodia supply chain and expenditure on this programme will remain restricted until a satisfactory forward plan is secured.
We are evaluating a number of potential opportunities including discussions with major branded companies to explore ways forward for the Hoodia programme which Phytopharm has licensed from the South African Council for Scientific Research (CSIR). It is currently too early in the dialogue to give any indication as to whether these discussions will lead to a further commercial opportunity to develop products based upon Hoodia gordonii.